The Platinum Ticket by David Beynon

Thursday, 15 April 2010

The waffle I'm talking about is the title for my fantasy novel. For a long, long time it was Loremaster, and I like that title. I liked the original novel, but I got some feedback from agents and others that my novel had too many traditional elements. Guilty as charged. Loremaster started out with wizards, elves, dwarves and giants, along with a myriad of other old fantasy standbys.

I took a long, hard look at the manuscript and made some changes. Wizardry, with all its mysticism became Craftsmanship, with all of the hard work that the word implies. Dwarves became a race of swarthy, hardy humans known as the Volkstamites. The elves became a detached, almost ghostly race of outsiders called the Nitherec. And the giants...well, there's only so much you can do. The giants are still giants, and rightly so.

I'm happy with the changes made. I'm glad I moved from preconceived notions of elves and dwarves etc and flavoured the world with my own creations. I think these changes make the novel unique.

I also changed the title. It went from Loremaster to The Edgeling. "Edgeling" is the name that humans have given to the Nitherec people because of their tendency to stand at the fringes of the world and not become involved.

Why did I change the title? Well, to be honest, after making various changes to the body of the novel, I wanted to approach some of the agents again with a revitalized manuscript. I thought maintaining the title might stand against me, so I changed it.

But it bothered me.

All of the changes I made to the body of the story added to the novel. Changing the title, I think, took away from it. Loremaster, I feel, has more punch than The Edgeling.

And so - after lots of waffling and consultation with those familiar with the book - my fantasy novel is once again, Loremaster.